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Hey all,
I took some really rough images of M42 the other night, alignment and focus was by eye, heavily light polluted, no calibration frames and I have a dusty corrector plate. However, this was the first time I have shot a deep sky object and for how rough it was I was pleased, see attached.
I watched a lot of DSS tutorial videos last night and I decided to stack the 16 images I have just to see what I get. Now, I am under no delusions as to the expected quality of the final image however, stacking made all the stars vanish and the overall quality of the image was less that that of a single frame. Any suggestions? I do not have an example image saved, sorry.
Thank you.

Hi all This is more of a cry for help than a showcase but I seem to have produced a situation where a single sub is giving me a better result than a DSS stacked image! The long and short of it is last night (16/01/2015) was the first clear night for ages so I spent some time outside trying to get as much data as possible in varying formats (ISO800, 1600 and 800 with Powermate). The examples below are ones taken at native FL at ISO1600 with a non-modded Canon 1100D with Astronomik LP filter through the WO GTF81. Subs are 120 seconds, 24 of them (a few more lost to star trails probably caused by the wind). At first I saw the subs coming through looking reasonably good, albeit bluish thanks to the LP filter. I could see a bit of a tail and was encouraged that I might get a good result after stacking with DSS. An example of one of the subs (in JPG format, the CR2's are even better but of course I can't upload them here to view) is below: After all subs were taken I took another 25 bias. Started to take darks but then had snow so had to bring everything in - I used darks from the library so not ideal. Flats also from the library. Stacked them in DSS using the 'stars and comets' option (option 3 for those who know DSS) but the result that came out the other side has sadly given me very little. I've stretched it beyond reason in PS CS5 and there simply isn't much there (see PNG output below): If you fancy a stab at the data feel free to grab the 16-bit TIF here or the 32-bit TIF here. So the question is, any ideas? What am I doing wrong or is there anything else I can get out of this? Or is the equipment simply not good enough to get the detail, especially with the LP filter? As always I value everyone's opinion so don't hesitate to throw anything at me! Cheers all Will

Hey SGL I was wondering in what order to processes DSO, and if different types of DSO require a different order. This is still basic, so 1 set of lights, single shots (aka not using filters to split colours), etc. Tutorials suggest: eg BudgetAstro DSS Align Colours Remove Vignetting (PS if no flats taken) Star Mask Levels Curves Match Colour / Reduce Noise / Sharpen I notice before I watched the BudgetAstro videos, my pictures turned out to be more vivid, when is Saturation done?

Hi, i was just wondering about something. When i try to use 2x or 3x drizzle in DSS i am always confronted with a message about how much memory will be needed to preform it. I have never been able to continue because by laptops memory is always on the red line, i am constantly getting pop ups saying i must make space as i have ran out of memory and i can never seem to find what is taking up soooooo much space. Now, i have an external hard drive with plenty of GBs or space. Does anybody know if there is an option to plug in my hard drive and use that space while DSS does its thing? I know its a long shot but thought i would ask. Would be an awesome option. Cheers.

Hi guys, reviewing your captured data the day (or the week) after the long awaited night is always excruciating. All this data, that is so painfully acquired and now not good enough? Where would you draw the line with egg shaped stars or cloud brightened subs? Example: normal sub - cloudy sub - egg shaped stars subs -

I am having lots of trouble processing some widefield Milky Way shots in DSS. At the end of the stacking process I get the usual screen for R G B wlignment but the image is white/blank without any RGB curves. I am using a canon 100D and the latests versions of DSS. Has anyone encountered this problem before? I have run out of ideas as to how to solve it. Thank you all for your help.

I have a few queries re tiff files in DSS and hope someone can explain. Firstly, it took me forever to figure out that the autosave tiff file cannot be opened using normal editing software because its 32 bit. At least I think that is the case – maybe someone could kindly confirm. Second, when the final image is rendered on the screen, it seems to be quite dark. Of course this can be edited within DSS, and I’ve found stacking the RGB curves somewhere in the middle of the graph seems to get a good result. So then I save this file as a 16 bit image, and play with it in editing app. That works OK. But if I close the image in DSS and then re-open the 32 bit autosave file, it looks quite different to the way it was originally rendered. I also notice that the graph now looks like a straight line, rather than the original curvy line. If I hit the “reset” button, the curve appears as it did in the original, and if applied, the image then darkens to the same appearance it had in the original. I don’t know why this should be, but the key question is, if I reopen the 32bit autosave file, will this have the same data as the original? Or do I need to do all my DSS manipulation before closing the original file? I hope that makes sense! Thanks for reading.

Just having a little play with the QHY5L-II, prior to modding - but wanted to have a quick attempt at M13 last night. I was actually quite pleased with the quality of the resulting frames and took 100 x 3sec light frames (red channel only) and 10 x darks. All frames saved as TIFF from source AVI using PIPP. However, no matter what star detection threshold settings I put in to DSS it finds no stars in any of the subs. My reference frame is below: Whilst this is certainly nothing special, I'm sure I have more stars than hot pixels! I've had a quick look through a couple of tutorials and googled no star detection in dss (only hits seem to relate to EOS FITS frames). Have I done something fundamentally wrong on the capture or am I missing something obvious in DSS?

Hi guys Just bought a modded Canon 500D to replace my beaten up Nikon D70 which, although it's served me well for 3 years, I am sick to death of! I've only had one short opportunity to give the Canon a test run, and it all seems fine until I stack in DSS. If I use lights and darks only I get a reasonable result, but when I add flats and bias the finished tif has no colour. I'm using the same settings in DSS as I used for the Nikon, but of course that's probably no good for the Canon. Anyone else out there using a 500D and DSS to stack? If so, what settings are you using in DSS for lights, darks, flats and bias etc? Thanks guys

I've recently started DSO imaging: Canon EOS 550D (modded), Celestron 9.25 SCT, AVX mount.
I use BYE, save RAW + JPEG to laptop, then process in DSS.
When I go into Register checked images: advanced: compute number of detected stars; I get a decent number (approx 250) if I am registering JPEG images at 2%, but very few, often zero, with RAW images of the same object, no matter where I put the slider.
Am I getting the settings wrong, or is there another answer.
Thank you.

I wrote this guide a while ago and after only recently updating my homepages thought I would share it on here. It is just a basic tutorial in how to use Deepsky Stacker. If only one person reads this and finds it useful then I am happy There are other tutorials on my homepage and if any of the admin wish me to create links then I shall ..... I need to hit the 250 posting mark so I can put a few wanted adverts up Deepsky Stacker Tutorial Best wishes, Steve

I see this question appears fairly regularly so I have been reading through a lot of old threads before posting however none seem to answer my question directly, hence this post.
I have been using DSS for a while now and in general I have been stacking and then choosing ‘Do not apply adjustments’ and saving as a TIFF format.
I suspect these steps are detrimental to the outputted file in that precious data is being lost.
From what I have read I should always use the ‘Autosave’ file and save as a FIT file (32bit?)?
Then go into FITS Liberator and save as a 32Bit TIFF or 16Bit Tiff?
Lastly go into Photoshop and open either the 16bit as normal or open the 32bit and convert to 16bit (using Exposure & Gamma method) on the drop down?
Now I have compared the FITS file which I have saved in DSS with both the Autosave and the ‘Do not apply adjustments’ type and then followed the stages through FITS and then PS.
What I am seeing on either FITS file is that after they have gone FITS Liberator they appear to be being stretched by FITS Liberator. If I compare the images in PS it is clear to see the differences against my current method. The Autosave 32bit version definitely gets stretched more but the 16bit is also stretched but less so.
Whereas using my 'normal' method in PS it displays a darker starting image. In the alternative method these images are clearly showing DSO is clearly visible. Ideally I want to control this myself so I do not want them to appear stretched before I can begin working on them. e.g. Protecting against Stars being saturated from the outset.
I tried to see if I could just switch off Auto Stretching in FITS Liberator (initially I thought this was a non-permanent change but it appears not) but I could not find a way. Am I missing something here? The default Stretch function in FITS Lib is ‘Linear’ but having tried all of the others none see to allow no stretching?
I understand Maxim DL and Astro Art other alternatives but surely FITS Liberator is sufficient for this purpose?
Are my steps correct? Do I need to worry about saving as a FIT from DSS or is this all extra work for nothing?
Thanks

Hi,
I would really appreciate some feedback/advice on the following.
A few nights ago I took 45 x 300s subs of the Rosette Nebula at ISO800 with a modded 700d Canon DSLR through a Altair Wave ED80. I've stacked the image with 30 darks, 30 bias, no flats (I have a plano which, apart from the extreme edges seems to handle any vignetting) and had a go at processing in photoshop.
I live between Leeds & Wakefield so skies are very light polluted but tried to reduce the effects by using a Hutech IDAS LP filter. I started image capture about 9pm so the Rosette Nebula was relatively low in the sky although some captures were taken much later when it has well above the horizon.
After stacking I had some data but a lot less than I was expecting and really struggled to bring out any detail on Photoshop.
The questions I have are:
1) Is the level of data I have (see screenshot of DSS) typical for this amount of subs? (I have spread the channels out so you can see the data for each. I've aligned each before processing.
2) Should I have used a higher ISO say 1600?
3) Would changing DSS settings make any difference. I use standard mode, Average for Lights & Darks, median for Bias.
4) Is the fact that I'm in a high LP area significantly affecting the quality of the images.
There are some fantastic DSLR images of the Rosette nebula on this forum, so I think I should probably be getting better results.
I am relatively new to AP so apologies in advance for all the questions.
Thanks Dec.

I've just been trying to stack a series of lights, darks, flats and bias frames in Deep Sky Stacker. The lights, darks and flats were all taken on the same night. The bias frames are older, but have been used on many pictures before (with no issues).
However, on this occasion when I ran the whole lot through Deep Sky Stacker the whole left hand side of the resulting image was faded and blurred. A process of elimination narrowed it down to a problem with the bias frames. I took a fresh set of bias frames, but got exactly the same problem.
Has anyone any idea what the problem might be?

As in the title, I have a set of 11 Lights plus 16 Darks loaded into DSS but it says it can only use one of the lights. Individually, they all look much the same if rather dim. There are lots of things that can be changed but it's 2 years since I last used DSS and I can't remember what to do. Any help much appreciated. Thanks

Hi all, Last week I made some photos using my canon 500d on fixed tripod, with also the darks and bias. The results were not bad, but no milky way really visible, and I've been trying a little bit to fiddle with DSS parameters, or ACDSee, but no luck. I thought maybe the lack of flats was partially the cause of this, so I made some, yesterday. But probably I haven't understood flats at all, because instead of cancelling the vignetting, it added bright vignetting...... So my question is, if my lights are 30 20sec subs, 1600 ISO, f/4.5 at 18 mm, what should my flats be like? I did 30 subs at 1600 ISO, f/4.5 18 mm, but left the exposure automatic, which meant 1/320sec... (I used a tablet screen using a flashlight app). The flats show vignetting. If I had kept the 20sec exposure, they would obviously be completely white, overexposed... I attach two photos, one with, and one without the flats... NB: the one with bright vignetting is the one WITH the flats... :-/ thanks for any help!! Gerhard.

Hi!
I have about 4 hours worth of data from M51. I captured my subframes with my 8" Orion Newtonian Astrograph and my Nikon D3200. About two hours of data are from 30 second exposures (some at ISO800 and others at ISO100). The rest are 4 minute exposures at ISO800 (these were captured after I bought my Orion Starshoot SSAG). In order for DSS to align these frames, I need to have different star detection thresholds for the 30 second subs and the 4minute subs. I tried doing this by using batch Stacking, but it still uses the same detection threshold for all the file lists (or so I think, since at 20% it stacks almost all the 4 minutes, but at 6-7% it only stacks one of the 30 second frames). And fyi, when stacking only the 30 second frames, there is no problem making an image. Stacking only the 4 minute subs also shows no problems. Let me know any ways you can think of to resolve this. I appreciate it!

Hi, can anyone help with star detection in DSS. I have been getting some good images using my Star Discovery 150p and nikon d5100.
I'm using a 2xbarlow as I know I can't gain prime focus on this OTA and keeping my exposures down to 25secs due to field rotation with it being a Altazimuth mount and this can also be corrected in processing.
The problem I'm having is that when I put everything in to DSS and register the images, it detects hundreds of stars but when I stack them it tells me there's not enough stars and to change the threshold so it can stack more of the images!
The threshold is already set all the way to the left at 2%
I'm using 100 x 25sec exposures iso 1600, 25 x dark @ 25secs iso 1600 and 25 x bias @ 1/4000secs iso 1600
No matter what I do it will only stack the dark, the bias and 1x25secs exposure!
Is there anyone out there that has had similar issues and can shed some light on this please.

I had a successful session the night before last - my first with guiding using the ASi120MM on my ST80, atop my ED80 through which I imaged with my unmodified Canon 1100D and focal reducer. I was pleased with this image using 13 x 300 second lights with darks and flat frames: Then last night I thought I would try M51 and things have not gone so well. However I only took 6 x 400 second lights, 3 darks and used the previous flats as still ISO800. This was my first image out of DSS with a star detection of 50 stars: There appears to be a distinct lack of colour, I did moved the right hand RGB/K pointers for blue and green to the left a bit as I am sure someone once said make the peaks a bit fatter but I think that now a BAD idea. So I tried again without flats and the colour came back(?): But very noisy - but there is the colour! And I tried a third time this time including flats but set at "average" not "median", star detection 47 stars and got another dull image: This is my image from last year which was an unguided attempt using 30 x 70 second lights: Now I guess my questions are as follows: 1. Please confirm I should take a LOT more lights? 2. Should I reduce exposure down a lot from 400 seconds to reduce noise on a fairly moonlit night? 3. Where did the colour go? 4. Why did the image look better when I DIDNT use flats? 5. Any other advice please! ps - already saving up for a weeks training at Olly's place hopefully next year!

I read and enjoy this form a lot. I wish I was able to post more (some) content, but I haven't been out for ages. Anyway got out last hight determined to get 1499. Started out taking 200 sec subs with my un-modded 7D. Then mister Moon came out to play, so decided to reduce the exposures to 100 secs (not really sure if that was a good strategy? Anyway here's the result of stacking in DSS (i'm not a fan of DSS but it seemed to have been good to me this time) and a histogram stretch in PI. PA: using Alignmaster Captue: BYE Comments and criticism welcome.

Hi All
To date I have been using DSS to stack and (dare I say it) to also perform some image processing. The final, resultant TIFF file has been further processed using such applications as PaintShop Pro, GIMP or even Windows Photo Gallery. I have read that DSS is good for stacking but, ideally, should not be used for any processing. I have downloaded a trial version of StarTools but am having a few issues getting to grips with it or getting any results that are anywhere near as good as those so far obtained with just DSS, PSP etc. I appreciate that learning how to use StarTools will involve a steep curve (I was, in a previous life, a Microsoft Office Specialist Master Trainer so have first hand experience of the difficulties of mastering new software!) but it's starting off on the right foot that is throwing me, namely;
I understand that no processing should be performed in DSS, so, what stacking settings/options should be set here? Does anyone know of a definitive list of the best options to use?
StarTools likes the FITS image format. Do I use the Autosave FITS file DSS can produce or do I use the "Save picture to file...." option in DSS? If the latter, which option 16/32bit, integer/rational, apply adjustments/do not apply adjustments to saved image?
I have asked a lot of questions here and any advice/guidance will be greatly appreciated so thanks for taking the time to read and, if you do, replying to my post. Once I know I am on the right track with a starting image for StarTools, I feel I will have a fighting chance of learning how to use StarTools itself, however, I am sure that will be another story altogether.......